GES on Windows 7

Allowing Standard Users to Install Network Printers on Windows 7 without Prompting for Administrative Credentials

2011-07-11T18:07:00Z

Have you ever wondered if there is a way to allow a Standard Domain User to install network printers on their Windows 7 client computer without being prompted for administrative credentials? The following Blog Post which I have created provides you with the necessary information to guide you through the process and steps to enable this ability. • This document Applies to Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate x86 and x64 • This document contains information with regards to...(read more)

Enabling Printing for DOS Applications within Windows XP Mode VM on Windows 7

2010-11-30T18:32:00Z

You may find that your older DOS Applications will not work when installed on Windows 7. This can be due to a known problem on 32 bit Windows 7 according to Microsoft article 2408903 or you may be running a 64 bit edition of Windows 7. 2408903 An MS-DOS-based program that uses the MS-DOS protected mode interface crashes on a computer that is running Windows 7 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2408903 On Windows 7 64 bit edition, the NTVDM is not available. If you have...(read more)

Debugger Extensions Tips

2010-06-08T01:49:00Z

Windows Debugger Extension Tips. Windows debugger is a powerful tool for diagnosing and examining drivers and applications in Windows. There is support for developers to create their own extensions within the debugger to assist them with common or even highly detailed analysis. The purpose of this blog is to show you how to get started and manage these extensions within Windows. The Windows debugger help file is your main resource but the three commands below are your starting point and should...(read more)

The space bar is the new F8 when it comes to WinPE, Vista and Windows 7.

2010-06-02T18:49:28Z

In Windows operating systems starting at Vista or greater and including WinPE you now have an alternative with more flexible options than just pressing F8 while booting. Next time you restart your system, right after the BIOS POST screen and just before you see the Windows boot screen, try pressing the space bar. If you timed it right or hit the space bar enough you'll now be at the Windows Boot Manager. You can select which OS you'd like to boot, or you can hit F8 for the normal recovery options...(read more)

System Image Recovery – When I have identical drives, how do I know which one to restore to?

2010-06-02T18:29:43Z

The other day we ran into an interesting customer issue. The customer had 4 identical drives on the system and had previously used Windows 7 Backup to create a system image of his system and boot partitions. He then ran into a problem where Windows was no longer bootable and he needed to restore from an image. We had him boot into Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) using his system repair disc (the original Win7 media could also have been used). Once in WinRE, we chose System Image...(read more)

Two Escalation Engineer positions available. Apply now!

2010-06-01T21:18:43Z

We Are Hiring System Center Escalation Engineer Want to debug the most difficult problems against the largest, most complex piece of software ever written? Are you proficient with ‘Managed Code’ and System Center Products: Configuration Manager, Operations Manager, Data Protection Manager, Virtual Machine Manager or Opalis Integration Server? Are you fluent with debugging & programming? Can you represent Microsoft in critical, time sensitive solution delivery? Writing code is easy, finding bugs...(read more)

Windows 7 introduces a new KMDF 1394 driver.

2010-05-12T22:44:00Z

The Windows 7 1394 has a new default driver. The default binary is 1394OHCI.sys (KMDF) driver. Windows 7 also comes with, but not loaded, the Legacy Window OHCI1394.sys and 1394bus.sys drivers. Below is a listing of some of the key enhancements to be aware of from the new driver. * 1394OHCI.sys is now the default Windows 7 2008/r2 driver. ** Requires 1394A PHY or 1394b cards. ** Offers Gap Count Optimization which provides a big improvement in performance. As the legacy drivers are included...(read more)

Enable Debugging in WinPE3.0 when booting from a Windows Deployment Services (WDS) Server

2010-05-11T16:34:00Z

Steps to enable debugging in WinPE 3.0 when booted from WDS. You will need access to the folder structure on the WDS server. If you need to enable boot debugging, modify RemoteInstall\boot\{arch}\default.bcd. Here is an example: “bcdedit /store c:\RemoteInstall\boot\x64\ default.bcd /set {bootmgr} bootdebug on” If you need to enable kernel debugging, modify RemoteInstall\boot\{arch}\Images\{WIM}.bcd. Here is an example: REM to get the {GUID} look at “bcdedit /store c:\remoteinstall...(read more)

Year 2038 problem

2010-03-15T11:43:00Z

This is a short blog aimed at bringing together a lot of great content already published by many individuals. The issue is the year 2038 issue, also known as Unix Millennium bug, “Y2K38” and many others. The issue is encountered when a user sets their system date to a year past 2038 (actually it seems the date has to be past January 19, 2038) weird things happen as a result of the date calculation that is performed by the OS. You see, most Unix-like computers calculate system time as the number of...(read more)

Creating an Application Compatibility Shim

2010-01-22T22:48:00Z

If you are trying to run an application that was created for XP or Vista and had problems running in Windows 7, you could always turn on compatibility mode for the executable on your machine. However if you are trying to create a shim that could be used on other machines as well, you could use the following instructions to create the shim and send it. It is a very small size and once executed, will always be associated with that executable on that machine. The example used here is for creating a...(read more)

Set Network Location automation during Windows 7 Audit mode.

2009-12-03T02:24:39Z

When automating installation of Windows 7 and booting to Audit mode you may see the “Set Network Location” prompting you to set Home, Public, or Work Network. If this is an issue for you and you would like to close this window. The following sample script worked for me to close the windows as part of automated installation. Copy the following to a text file and save as: Closewin.vbs: Set WshShell = Wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Do While Not Wshshell.AppActivate ("Set Network...(read more)

Why won't my notebook resume from sleep for a scheduled task or event?

2009-10-22T20:59:00Z

You may have noticed that after installing Windows 7 on your portable computer, it will no longer automatically wake from sleep for scheduled events such as: Windows Updates A scheduled TV recording in Media Center Scheduled backups, defrag, etc. This is because starting with Windows 7, the default power management behavior for notebooks is to not automatically wake up the system for an scheduled event or task. This was done to preserve battery life by not having the notebook wake up during...(read more)

ReadyBoost Changes in Windows 7

2009-10-10T01:27:00Z

ReadyBoost is a feature that was introduced in Windows Vista, allowing a flash memory device (such as a USB flash drive or SD card) to act as a memory cache. This assisted with increasing a PC's performance, especially when physical memory was limited or not upgradable. Windows 7 has improved the capabilities of ReadyBoost over Windows Vista, including: Maximum cache size has been increased from 4GB to 32GB. Note that to utilize a memory cache of greater than 4GB, the flash drive needs to be...(read more)

DiskPart.exe and managing Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs) in Windows 7

2009-10-08T03:20:00Z

In Windows 7, new commands have been added in DiskPart to allow for the creation and management of Virtual Hard Disks (.vhd files). The DiskPart VHD management commands have been provided below in 2 sections – commonly used commands with examples and other commands. It is assumed in each of the examples that DiskPart.exe has already been launched in an elevated command prompt. Creating a VHD The example below creates a 20GB dynamically expanding VHD called "test.vhd" and places...(read more)

Windows 7 to say Hello World! on October 22nd.

2009-10-07T01:47:00Z

In preparation for the general availability of Windows 7, the OEM team has been preparing a new blog which will continue where Windows Vista Now left off. Unfortunately that means an end to the old blog, content there will no longer be updated and will remain live to serve as an archive. Starting today and moving into the future, look to this blog to continue on with Windows 7. We're also now on Twitter so follow us @MicrosoftGES , we'll be posting much more frequently from various sources with information...(read more)